Dudith, Andreas Sbardellati

Dudith, Andreas Sbardellati, was born at Buda, in Hungary, in 1533, and became bishop of Tina, in Dalmatia, in 1560. He was afterwards appointed successively bishop of Csanad, then of Fiinfkirchen, secretary of the Hungarian chapter, and in 1562 was sent to the Council of Trent as the representative of the Hungarian clergy. Here he advocated the giving of the cup to the laity very strenuously, and also opposed the celibacy of the clergy. A secret marriage he had contracted led him to resign his office in 1567. He then resided for some time at Cracow where he openly professed the Protestant religion; afterwards he lived on his estates in Moravia, and died at Breslau in 1589. In one part of his career he inclined to Socinianism, but in the latter years of his life he professed the evangelical doctrines. Some of his writings were published at Offenbach in 1610. In respect to toleration, Dudith was in advance of his age. He writes to Beza, "You try to justify the banishment of Ochino, and the execution of others, and you seem to wish Poland would follow your example. God forbid! When you talk of your Augsburg Confession, and your Helvetic Creed, and your unanimity, and your fundamental truths, I keep thinking of the sixth commandment, Thou shalt not kill (Benedict, History of the Baptists). The speeches made by him at Trent were published by Schwarz under the name of Lorandus Samuelfy (Halle, 1743). See Mosheim, Church Hist. (N.Y. 1854), 3:231, note; Stief, Geschichte vom Leben Dudith's (Breslau, 1756).